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Favourite one click plugins for orchestra? (easy to use)

Michael G.

Michael G.

Member
So, I am on search for some new master bus plugins I might add and don't want to make things complicated. Do you have some that are easy to use, yet make a great difference in sound? Something like Fresh Air and Saturation Knob, love those!
That's the sound I'm looking for:



And I know, you can't achieve that by blindly inserting 10 plugins into the master bus, but I just want to know if there's a plugin that does make things sound better every time you use it.
Click to read more...
 
Last edited:
Softube's Abbey Road Brilliance pack (on sale now actually). Jeremy Soule recommended them to give a little bit of air and breath to the upper frequencies in orchestral mockups, and they are crazy simple to use, and sound great.
 
Kush TWK for simple saturation.
VOS Slick EQ GE for, well, EQ.
Oxford Inflator (saturation/clipper/loudness)
Weiss MM-1 (loudness/limiter)

I guess I don't really use one-click plugins much, but I do appreciate a good UX.
 
In my folder of mastering plugins, I have the:
Amek eq 200
Gullfoss
Soothe2
Ozone Advance Vintage
Ozone Advance Imager
Ozone Advance Exciter
Ozone Advance Maximizer
OTT
Softube tape
Slate VSM
Waves MixCentric
Waves j37
FabFilter ProMB
FabFilter ProQ3
FabFilter ProL2
KushAudio Omega
Vertigo VSM-3
Elysia Alpha Master
Mullenia TCL-2
TDR Kotelnicov
Waves G-Master Buss Comp

If we're talking about the "easy to use", here's what I would try:

OTT - which people often use on the master for the effect of adding air like "fresh air".
Gullfoss - which is also easy to use, and helps improve the frequency response of the mix and make it cleaner. It's the only plugin in the list that I would definitely use in every project.
MixCentric - I don't like plugins where I don't understand what's going on inside, but u can try it.

There are also many saturators that usually have only a couple of knobs, but it's all a matter of taste. If I were to talk about buying something new, I would probably choose Ozone Advanced, which has good multiband saturation and a lot of other very useful things like multiband stereo imager, limiter.
 
If the goal is that the "orchestra" sounds like an "orchestra" some of the given tips
are absurd.

E.g. both Omega TWK and OTT are great plugins on their own.
But in the context of "orchestra" I would only use them if the goal is to turn the sound into something trailer-ish that could originate in Heavyocity's "Symphonic Destruction" library.
Maybe OTT in very moderate settings will not destroy the sound completely. But it will worsen it.


So, maybe you could clarify first, if you're about an orchestral sound (like in orchestral music)
or if you are looking for a Trailer-ish, hybrid sound.

Maybe also post some examples of the sound you're after.

And – that would be even more interesting – people who name plugins should also post snippets of music, where the plugin is used.
Otherwise it will derail into a name-every-plugin-there-is tread with lots of recommendations that make absolutely no sense in an orchestral setup.


===

Besides, one of the stellar plugins when it comes to bringing out details of an orchestral sound but still maintaining the "natural" flair is Zynaptiq's intensity.
(Mix around 12-15%)

And for the "air", basically all EQs that have some quality will work.
 
I can highly recommend Melda MSpectralDynamics for it's ability to add some clarity to a busy mix, though it won't rescue a poor one.
Bare in mind I don't compose orchestral, but it has worked well for me on tracks that include strings and woodwinds. Definitely worth demoing.
 
For actual 'orchestral' compositions, you don't particularly need anything to make it sound better. It should generally be fine as is, as long as you mix correctly.

If you want to change things to make them sound better at the mastering stage, I'd suggest iZotope Ozone which has been very useful to me. Gulfoss is said have even better algorithms but I have no idea, really.

I think something like Ozone would be useful because aside from the whole algorithmic mastering thing, you can also see what it's doing and learn from it, which is what I think you should be doing.

Hornet Plugins has a 'Spectrum Analyzer EQ' that can do some automated fixing of your mixes and is basically a "poor man's gulfoss".

Finally, I really don't think you should be just throwing stuff onto your Master Buss like Glitterglue without understanding what it is that's happening. So whatever you do, be mindful of what it is the tool is doing. It could very well be making things worse.

Don't be lazy. Do the work.

Or, you know, outsource the mastering stage to someone who knows what they're doing. That's also a very valid road to take. 'One click solutions' aren't going to get you to that level... if any level of deep mastering is even necessary.
 
I didn't give tips, these were just plugins that I suggested trying because I don't know what music the author had in mind. And since fresh air was mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is OTT (despite it being a multiband compressor).

I fully agree that OTT is not suitable for fully orchestral music.
 
For "air" I really like the 12khz band of Kazrog's True 252 eq, which is awesome overall too.

For a betterizer for orchestral mixes I would first try a good saturation or tape plugin, but obvs as @Living Fossil said there is no one-size-fits-all simple solution.
 
ymouhoun said:
Can't recommend The God Particle by Cradle Audio enough
Click to expand...
It is excellent.

And if you're worrying about smashing the track too much with the god particle for orchestral usage, just do the below 2 modifications:
1. Turn the limiter off or dial it back to where it's only limiting a tiny bit
2. Adjust the input to the god particle so that you're barely hitting the green at the loudest sections of your track

You can then ignore the above 2 points if you work on hybrid tracks and push back into it for the loud sections.
 
Living Fossil said:
If the goal is that the "orchestra" sounds like an "orchestra" some of the given tips
are absurd.

E.g. both Omega TWK and OTT are great plugins on their own.
But in the context of "orchestra" I would only use them if the goal is to turn the sound into something trailer-ish that could originate in Heavyocity's "Symphonic Destruction" library.
Maybe OTT in very moderate settings will not destroy the sound completely. But it will worsen it.


So, maybe you could clarify first, if you're about an orchestral sound (like in orchestral music)
or if you are looking for a Trailer-ish, hybrid sound.

Maybe also post some examples of the sound you're after.

And – that would be even more interesting – people who name plugins should also post snippets of music, where the plugin is used.
Otherwise it will derail into a name-every-plugin-there-is tread with lots of recommendations that make absolutely no sense in an orchestral setup.


===

Besides, one of the stellar plugins when it comes to bringing out details of an orchestral sound but still maintaining the "natural" flair is Zynaptiq's intensity.
(Mix around 12-15%)

And for the "air", basically all EQs that have some quality will work.
Click to expand...
That's the sound I'm looking for:



And I know, you can't achieve that by blindly inserting 10 plugins into the master bus, but I just want to know if there's a plugin that does make things sound better every time you use it.

Thanks for all the replies, maybe you all can distinguish a bit more between the hybrid and the realistic sound, but I still have a lot to try!!!!
 
Michael Grigorowitsch said:
That's the sound I'm looking for:
Click to expand...
Ok, that's quite a natural sound. The sound here is mostly the result of the good instrumentation.
And samples that sound good and are used with expertise.

Maybe @Blakus wants to chime in and share some infos.

Personally, I think, for this sound you will typically don't do too much on the master bus.
Maybe some compression, some EQing. Maybe some mild saturation (like a tape emu).
Maybe a bit of Gulfoss.

And, as mentioned above, I think for a good orchestral sound, Zynaptiq's Intensity really does a lot, since it brings out details.
 
I can highly recommend the plugins from Sonible (https://www.sonible.com/), for the master bus especially the smart:EQ 3 and smart:limit.
If I'm not mistaken the Focusrite FAST Bundle uses Sonible's algorithms under the hood, but come with a different GUI: https://collective.focusrite.com/products/
Both offer demo versions so you can simply test them yourself first.
What I like most about these: If you want you can learn from these, as you can see and alter the settings the AI chooses.
 
j_kranz said:
Softube's Abbey Road Brilliance pack (on sale now actually). Jeremy Soule recommended them to give a little bit of air and breath to the upper frequencies in orchestral mockups, and they are crazy simple to use, and sound great.
Click to expand...

I use them on every single orchestral stem!! I had no idea Jeremy Soule recommend them but that just makes me love those plugins even more now, for the orchestra I particularly like the Gray one, I set it to 10k and then add like 2/4db and I’m set. Quick, simple, and extremely effective
 
For your master bus the only thing I will ever recommend is The God Particle, you can’t get more simple than that, and it sounds great too
 
Voxengo TEOTE set to the Mastering preset mixed in at around 50%, will help with the spectral balance of the mix, add air, etc. It's similar to Gullfoss, but offers more control and I personally prefer the sound.

I'd stay away from anything that imparts heavy compression. A lot of the one-knob solutions, like Mix Centric, go overboard on compression. Orchestral music benefits from a wide dynamic range, so don't squash it.
 
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